Cosmetic products such as mascara, facial foundation, lipstick, hair dyes, and the like have long been used by consumers to aesthetically enhance their physical appearance. The selection of an optimal product from a broad range of choices is a dilemma for consumers. Moreover, the consumer cannot make his/her choice in a private and comfortable setting while selecting his/her product in a retail establishment. Further, once the choice is made, the consumer is committed to his/her choice until the product is either consumed or discarded. This commitment does not permit subsequent flexibility in mood, expected social situation, skin condition, and the like. Also, the consumer may be dissatisfied with the impression a product has, either as a result of his/her own perception or as communicated by another. Consequently, most consumers have a vast array of unused products in their homes. These unused products often have expiration dates, which are rarely acknowledged by the consumer and, therefore, create potential health hazards to the consumer.
Past approaches to cosmetic personalization have focused on the point of sale occurring in the retail establishment. For example, methods permit a salesperson to manually adjust the formulation of facial foundations so as to match the consumer's skin color. More recent approaches have advanced this idea by providing automatic cosmetic dispensing devices at a retail establishment. These more recent devices are operated by retail store personnel to produce a product which is packaged in a container and provided to the consumer.
Although the abovementioned approaches partially address a consumer's need for personalization, there are several significant disadvantages. For example, these approaches assume that a consumer will not change his/her mind, regarding the purchased product, on a frequent basis after using the product. Under either approach listed above, a change of mind on the consumer's part requires him/her to repurchase another entire container of cosmetic product. Further, the consumer must physically visit the retail establishment and again make selections in a public setting. These approaches are inconvenient, expensive and still result in significant cosmetic inventory at the consumer's home. Moreover, the expiration dates associated with the consumer's cosmetic inventory will often expire before the consumer ever finishes the product.
Furthermore, existing point of sale cosmetic dispensing devices fill a container with a cosmetic product, requiring the product to be transferred onto an applicator prior to use by the consumer. For example, point of sale customized facial cream is typically provided in a bottle at the retail establishment. Prior to the consumer using the customized facial cream, the cream must be transferred to the consumer's hand or onto a pad where it is subsequently applied by the consumer. If the consumer is unhappy with the customized facial cream, the entire bottle of cream remains unused because, existing devices do not permit dispensing a single application quantity of the facial cream onto an intermediate surface for a single application by the consumer.